2008 Ph.D. in Wildlife Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Dissertation title: 'King Eider migration and seasonal interactions at the individual level.' [link to project website]

2003 M.Sc. in Landscape Ecology at the University of Oldenburg, Germany; Thesis title: 'The role of breeding biology, habitat selection, and cowbird parasitism for the conservation of the Pale-headed Brush-Finch, Atlapetes pallidiceps, in southern Ecuador.'

1998 completion of intermediate exams in Landscape Ecology at the University of Oldenburg, Germany (equivalent to B. Sc. degree)

1994 graduation from Graf-Münster-Gymnasium Bayreuth, Germany